Trains, planes and automobiles

I’m typing this from a very quiet, small “Express Café” in Lahti train station. We’re about 40 minutes from Helsinki by train, and about 80 miles from Kotka. Tony explained that we had to go a fair way inland, towards the mountains, to get our next train to Kotka. We managed to jump on an earlier train so now we have a bit of time to wait until we get the next one. I’m looking forward to some nice views on the way from here to the last town of the day. We’ll stop there for the night (Tone’s booked a hotel) and we’ll head to Hamina tomorrow morning to sort the van.

As Tony cosies up to the radiator and we wait for the young lad behind the counter to bring us our steaming hot lattes, we enjoy the simpler things in life: Mars bars. Thank everything for Mars bars (I’ve been craving one since we got on our Norwegian Airlines flight!).

First impressions of Finland? Finnish people are nice. Like extraordinarily nice. Not one person has walked past us without offering us help on our journey. From the family at Helsinki airport letting us know that all trains go to Helsinki centre (ahem – that wasn’t really all that helpful as we didn’t want to go to Helsinki centre!) to the Spanish guy at the Tikkurila platform with his poodle who tried to help Tony (who wasn’t trusting me with my thinking of getting the “Z” train to Lahti). Even the slightly sketchy character (with a very criminal-like gruff voice who stepped off his train to Kouvola to smoke a swift cig at the Tikkurila platform) helped us. And when we got into Lahti, even the lady in the lift helped us find the café (I think Tony needed some convincing after I assumed it was this way). This lady explained that she saw us in Gatwick and that we were at security together. I’m surprised she remembered us. Was it owing to Tony’s dodgy limp? My crazy curtain trousers? Or perhaps it was the grilling the official was giving me at Helsinki airport…

 

We got up at about 6:30am, had our Premier Inn breakfast whilst poring over the collateral decline/massive slide of the rouble’s value (why don’t people go on trips when there’s a special operation more often?!)*. We told Mel, the waitress, all about our trip - she’d been working last night too, and served us for dinner; thanks, doll – hope you’re reading and have enjoyed checking out the other posts!).

It was only a three-minute walk from the hotel to the airport but Tony spotted a bus and on we jumped to the airport. Four minutes later, we’re getting off the bus to walk three minutes from the stop to the airport entrance. We checked in our bags (no thanks to LastMinute.com who we booked our tickets from – their thirdpartiness duffs up the Norwegian Airlines check-in/bag-tagging machines – too much detail?). Anyway, basically, all was fine and dandy. My bag got stopped through security – no idea why. Tony had to take off his shoes (I reckon it’s that dodgy limp that made them ask him to!) and, after a couple of free squirts of some posh perfume, we waited for our gate number to appear whilst we enjoyed a cheeky caramel Frappuccino (with extra whipped cream, please!).

We took a (slightly long) little toddle to Gate 45, and, after a bit of discussion around Uncle Vlad’s reputation, legacy and overall audacity we boarded the plane (boy, I’m glad Tony is a stress-free kinda guy, happy to wait until all the highly strung peeps have got on before even thinking about moving!).

The flight was fine; we enjoyed a bit of light reading (gotta love free papers – it almost makes the media semi-acceptable) and Tony enjoyed the few hours of Stacey silence.

 

Light reading on the plane

We talked about a Plan B but agreed we’ll stick to the plan of getting into Russia first and foremost (I decided I’d check the Government guidelines to console myself once I got wifi and there’s still no advice to stay away so I’m happy we’re safe).

We got to passport control and joined the non-EU passports queue (who voted for Brexit anyway?!). Tony seemed to breeze through the line of questioning from the Finnish official in his control booth but I wasn’t quite so fortunate.

“Where are you going?”

“Hamina.”

“Why?”

“Leisure.”

“What’s in Hamina?”

“A van.”

“Why are you going to Hamina to get a van?”

(I thought the line of questioning was pretty full-on at this point, so imagine what it was like when I said….)

“Because we’re going to Russia.”

 

“Why are you going to Russia?”

“Why is the van in Hamina?”

“What make is the van?”

“Did you drive the van to Hamina?”

“Who does the van belong to?”

“Where is your husband?”

“Who are you travelling with?”

“What do you do for work?”

“Where do you work?”

The Finnish official would speak to his colleague in between questions and he felt the need to Google my organisation (it was at this point I started to get a little worried!).

Before I knew it, Tony was there, ready to corroborate – by giving different answers!!

“Where are you going?” “Kotka.”🙈 

Tony did a better job than me of explaining the trip and, thankfully, the official was charmed:

“I like your van.”

His smiley eyes were a sight for sore eyes! (And if you could read a Finnish accent through this writing, you’d get a feel for the sense of threat I was feeling – I genuinely thought he wasn’t going to let me in!)

I cheekily asked for a photo but was told he couldn’t in his work clothes. *ahem* Hopefully he’ll be reading this blog as we gave him one of the laminated cards that Tony/Treez made for our trip!

 

So that’s today’s update: what will tomorrow bring?!

 

*I’m trying to respect censorship to save this being shut down – I read Facebook and Twitter are already offline in the big R so trying to be as good as possible!